Most people take a bit of time re-adjusting to their day job following a spell away on holiday - be it over Christmas or after a summer trip. Apparently, the same is true for golfers, highlighted by an unusual mistake from Justin Rose during the first round of The Sentry on Thursday.
The highly-experienced 43-year-old admitted he hit the wrong ball on the seventh hole of Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course, leading to a two-stroke penalty and causing a logistical problem for both he and one of his playing partners, either Taylor Moore or Andrew Putnam.
In stroke play, if you play the wrong ball then a general penalty of two strokes applies – added to your score at the end of the hole. You must also correct the mistake by continuing play with your original ball by playing it as it lies or taking relief under the Rules.
Luckily for Rose, in a way, he realised the error before holing out. If he had completed the seventh with the incorrect ball, he would have been disqualified.
Rose's error arrived during his first competitive round since finishing in a tie for eighth at December's Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas - also the location for Tiger Woods' latest professional comeback.
The Englishman had found conditions a little trickier than most through the front nine at Kapalua, sitting at one-over thanks to five pars through the opening six holes. The misdemeanour at seven - and another bogey at nine - saw Rose make the turn in 40 shots, but his back-nine recovery was simply excellent.
Making a par at 10, 14, and 17, Rose recorded birdies at each of the other six holes to move back up to a tie for 46th on two-under. He remains some way behind leader, Sahith Theegala, however, with the American on nine-under and just a single stroke ahead of five players - including Collin Morikawa, Jason Day, and Viktor Hovland.
First day back at work after the festive period was interesting @TheSentry I hit the wrong ball on the 7th!! 🤦🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/SA4T0wSZVHJanuary 5, 2024
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Rose admitted his mistake and called his return "interesting." He said: "First day back at work after the festive period was interesting @TheSentry I hit the wrong ball on the 7th!!"
This week's accident was not the first time Rose has incurred a shot penalty via unfortunate circumstances. In 2013, during the third round of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms, the 23-time winner was a penalized by one stroke after inadvertently moving his ball via a small divot kicked up from a practice swing.
Rose - who had won the same tournament at Cog Hill two years previously - had set up to visualize the shot around 10 feet behind before clipping the turf and sending a small piece of mud and grass cascading into his ball, nudging it forward by a few inches.
While instances of professionals hitting the wrong ball are extremely rare, it does still happen. In 2019, Paul Lawrie and Carl Mason were disqualified from the Farmfoods European Legends Links Championship for playing each other's golf ball by mistake.
And in January 2022, Mackenzie Hughes - who snuck into the 2024 Sentry as a result of Jon Rahm's move to the LIV Golf League - fell foul of a two-stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball. Painfully, the incident saw him miss the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open by a single shot.
